Amazon Surges In Q1

Amazon surged past expectations in its first quarter, with both sales and earnings growing significantly. The company also revealed plans to push expansion of Prime free one-day delivery.

Amazon posted net income of $3.56 billion, or $7.09 per diluted share, versus $1.63 billion, or $3.27 per diluted share, in the year-previous period. The company topped a MarketBeat-published analyst consensus estimate of $4.61 per diluted share for the quarter.

The company reported a net sales increase of 17% to $59.7 billion versus the 2018 quarter. With $1.1 billion of negative impact from year-over-year foreign exchange rates changes excluded, net sales advanced 19% from the year-prior period, the company asserted. Operating income was $4.42 billion versus $1.93 billion in the year-before quarter.

In a conference call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said that Amazon is accelerating transformation of Prime, investing more money to bring more customers faster delivery.

“This is all about the core free two-day offer morphing into or evolving into a free one-day offer. We’ve already started down this path. We’ve, in the past months, significantly expanded our one-day eligible selection and also expanded the number of zip codes eligible for one-day shipping,” he said.

Amazon listed highlights of the quarter as including a third round of Whole Foods price cuts and expanded banner Prime benefits with more exclusive weekly deals on popular products across departments and expansion of free, two-hour delivery from Whole Foods Market via Prime Now. In addition, the e-tailer pointed out its launch of Amazon Day, a delivery option that lets Prime members choose a day of the week for their packages to arrive, as well as the expansion of Key by Amazon, which now includes a Key for Garage option, for consumers who want packages dropped off in their homes if they are out.

In addition, Amazon noted that it is scheduling new Selling Partner Summits in the U.S., a series of six conferences for small and medium-sized businesses to help participants build their operations in its stores.

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